The National Restaurant Association has honored Eat’n Park Hospitality Group with its 2011 Restaurant Neighbor Award. The award celebrates outstanding service efforts that restaurateurs perform in their respective communities.
The company, parent of the Pittsburgh-based Eat’n Park family restaurant chain, Parkhurst Dining Services and Cura Hospitality contract foodservice, was recognized as the Large Business Category winner for its charitable efforts on behalf of children’s hospitals.
“The restaurant industry first and foremost is about hospitality and serving people, and community service is a natural extension of that,” said Dawn Sweeney, National Restaurant Association President and CEO. “We are pleased to present the Restaurant Neighbor Award to some of the most inspiring examples of philanthropy in our industry. Eat’n Park’s dedicated efforts have helped improve the lives of many fellow community members, and most particularly sick children and their families.”
With its restaurants long known as the “Place for Smiles,” Eat’n Park has, since 1979, devoted itself to fundraising for children’s hospitals in the communities it serves. Through its Caring for Kids program, a charitable effort that consists of fundraising events like raffles and donations, the company has raised more than $7 million to date. The money helps defray the expensive costs of medical care for kids and also provides funds to help Eat’n Park’s partner hospitals, like the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, expand their reach.
The National Restaurant Association presented Eat’n Park with the award along with a $5,000 charitable contribution during its 2011 Public Affairs Conference in Washington, D.C. American Express is the founding partner of the Restaurant Neighbor Award. It was developed in 1999 in an effort to raise awareness of the industry’s contributions to local communities throughout the country and to inspire more owners and operators to get involved and contribute to their respective communities.
“American Express is proud to partner with the National Restaurant Association to honor the contributions restaurateurs across the country make to their communities,” said Curtis L. Wilson, Vice President and General Manager, Restaurant and Lodging Industries, American Express. “Through charitable gifts of food, time, and resources, restaurants have a tangible and lasting impact on their communities; we hope these actions inspire others to do the same.”
In addition to Eat’n Park, the National Restaurant Association recognized three others with the 2011 Restaurant Neighbor Award. They are: Charleston Chefs Feed The Need, a consortium composed of 52 Charleston, S.C.-based restaurants, in the mid-size business category; Kona Kai Coffee Company, a gourmet coffee shop in Kent, Wash., in the small business category; and Michael Whalen, president and chief executive of Moline, Iowa-based Heart of America Restaurants, as this year’s Cornerstone Humanitarian.